Brown pleased after first friendly

Manager happy with his squad's effort following friendly with Great Wakering Rovers

Phil Brown says he was pleased with the fitness levels of his squad after Blues’ pre-season schedule started with a 3-2 win against Great Wakering Rovers.

Blues’ manager was keen to reiterate he is not worried about results throughout pre-season, but was happy with how his squad fared in the searing heat at Burroughs Park.

Brown said: “This heat was ideal in my opinion but obviously I don’t think the players will have enjoyed it much. It was like a warm-weather training camp game but that’s good for making sure they are ready for the season.

“We’ve worked extremely hard over the last two weeks and had two hard sessions on Thursday and Friday so I was pleased with the fitness levels of the players and I thought they dealt with the heat well.

“The 45 minutes was ideal for all the players and we’ll look to build on that next week in the games against Bishop’s Stortford and Braintree. They are night games so it’ll be cooler for the players.”

Brown was impressed with the performance of Essex Senior League opponents Great Wakering and says their tactics worked extremely well in the first-half.

“I thought they outdid us with their tactics in the first-half and played a diamond formation that we couldn’t deal with at times on the break,” he said.

“We haven’t worked on our tactics at all at this stage, that will come over the next few weeks, but you have to give real credit to their manager and the players for carrying out their tactics well.

“I think in the first-half we were just trying a bit too hard and nothing seemed to be coming off. We got caught on the break twice. But we seemed more relaxed in the second-half and played some good football.”